Tyranny of the Taxing Power

It has been frequently stated that our constitutions and our courts were made and organized for the protection of capital and of the vested interests. If this be the case, they are manifestly inadequate for their purpose, and the danger of the future is not that capital will be too much protected but that the reckless extravagance of today will continue and be increased, and that our representatives in our city councils, our state legislatures, and our national congress, who depend for their elections upon the votes of the majority who have accumulated little or nothing, will more and more yield to the demand for appropriations and expenditures which can only be financed and provided for by an excessive taxation of those who have. Seldom is a state or municipal bond issue voted down, for not only are those who are to be directly benefited active in its support, but the enterprise usually means jobs and work for the many, and the many have no property to be taxed and do not pay. Already the municipalities, by confiscating the value of city lots by taxes and special assessments, have .reduced the fee owners to but little more than tenants.- Not only is this the fact, but there everywhere seems to be a widespread propaganda of socialism and of communism which looks upon the power of taxation as a means to equalize fortunes and to control social policies, and in some of the socialistic states of the west even as a means to drive out of existence privately owned industries and establishments which dare to compete with those which are publicly owned.